Dev seeds come with HUGE warning
Originally posted by dudeami
I may be incorrect on this. However I would think that a dev seed would mean that this is sent to an external beta test group that is not getting paid to test this. This should be similar to a pilot group on a software deployment, and should be used to determine if there are minor bugs, not that the software will destroy enough computers in two-three days of testing that you determine you need to "recall" the software. And yes, M$ has developed a bad reputation that has basically forced it's user comunity to be very cautious about applying their "fixes". I would like to see Apple have a better reputation then that. Especially with their efforts to enter into the enterprise market. The fact that the software had that adverse an effect, would lead me to believe that it really should still have been in alpha testing, and should not have been a release candidate. If this software and Safari were both seeded at the same time, as the rumor has it, how much time do they normally allow for software to go from this seed to production?
Do you actually know what the issue was with the 20" iMac? If not, then how do you know how much testing was done in house at Apple before releasing this to developers? It may have been a fairly innocuous issue that only showed up during unusual settings/configurations.
Dev seeds come with HUGE warnings in regards to only installing on Macs dedicated for testing purposes and never on a production or mission critical Mac.
Certainly, if this seed did physical damage to the 20" iMacs under common settings/configurations, then it was a blunder by Apple, but more than likely this isn't the case (otherwise we would've heard of exploding iMacs or whatever).
The fact of the matter is that the number of Macs, the number of configuration and setting possibilities along with all the software available makes it impossible to thoroughly test in-house in a timely manner to provide updates to consumers.
Most professional developers understand this, and would be able to overcome any *likely* problems a bad seed would cause by zapping PRAM, reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling the OS and the software they develop...hell this is an extremely routine procedure you do on a regular basis as you're developing new iterations of your own software.